How to Change the Settings on Your Windows 8 Tablet's Start Screen

The Start screen browser on your Windows 8 tablet, like nearly all apps, lets you tweak its settings to meet your particular needs, and, just as with all apps, opening the settings area begins with a trip to the Charms bar, as described in the following steps:

Fetch the Charms bar by sliding your finger inward from the screen’s right edge. Then tap the Settings icon.

The Settings pane appears.

Tap the words Internet Options, near the top of the Settings pane.

The Internet Explorer Settings pane appears.

The Internet Explorer app is built for speed rather than power, so it lets you change only these things:

Permissions: Some sites ask for your physical location, usually to either tell you about your surroundings or send you targeted advertising. Leave the toggle set to On, and the browser politely asks permission before revealing your location to a nosy website. Toggle it off, and all sites automatically know your location. (Tap the Clear button to revoke location permission from sites that have previously had access.)

Zoom: Handy when you can’t read the tiny text on websites, this sliding bar lets you choose the magnification level to view sites. If you’ve set up the desktop to enlarge the screen by 125 percent, this will be set at 125. That’s fine for most websites, as you can pinch or stretch them to the size that best displays their content.

Flip Ahead: This lets you read websites like reading a book, flicking the pages from right to left. To turn it on or off, tap the toggle switch. (The word On or Off appears next to the toggle switch, letting you know which way it’s switched.)

Encoding: Rarely used, this area lets you change how the browser displays sites containing foreign languages.

Tap anywhere on the web page to close the Internet Explorer Settings pane and return to browsing.

Your changes to the Internet Explorer app’s settings take place immediately.